Melancholy
by Baby the Stars Shine Bright
Summary: They'd known each other as children, but she was suddenly forced away. When they met again 1st year, nothing was the same. Now circumstances beyond their control may bring them back together. Remus/OC
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Not mine

* * *

Her name was Melanie, but being stereotyped as the school's "goth girl" had given her the only so affectionate nickname Melancholy. She was fine with it, though. Honestly, it'd been so long that she didn't even remember how it'd started. She just answered to it. It wasn't like people really talked to her anyway.

"Potter, Black, Pettigrew, Monroe, Dyrin. Go to the Headmaster's office," Professor McGonagall said shortly as she returned to the classroom.

Melancholy's head shot up. James Potter, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew were always getting into trouble. Lily Evans and Fay Monroe, as two of the infamous Marauders' girlfriends and mischief-makers in their own right, weren't far behind, though they didn't get caught nearly as much. Melancholy? She didn't even know where the Headmaster's office was and she certainly had nothing to do with anything that any of this lot had done.

She said nothing though, as she shoved her sketch book into her school bag and trailed behind them. It didn't make any sense. Even if they weren't in trouble, what did she have to do with them? Really, why was she-

A gargoyle? They were stopping at a gargoyle?

"Pixie sticks," James said almost lazily.

_Pixie sticks? What the hell do pixie sticks— Oh. Okay. Gargoyle moves. How lovely. And a revolving staircase. Great._

James knocked on the door in the same bored manner. "Professor?"

"Come in." Dumbledore stared at them gravely from behind his desk as the group filed in. "I'm afraid that the reason that I've called you here is an unfortunate one indeed. As you may have known, the Lupin house was attacked nearly a week ago and Andrew Lupin has been in Intensive Care since then…" Sirius and James cursed softly while Lily gasped and Fay's eyes filled with tears. Melancholy couldn't move. "He passed away last night while with his son and wife. They have requested your presence. Once you have your belongings, we will leave."

Melancholy stood awkwardly. She didn't want to be the only one to walk out as James had wrapped his arm around Lily and Sirius had pulled Fay to his chest, her shoulders shaking as she struggled not to make a sound. "W-we should go. Remus needs us," she gasped finally. Once again, Melancholy followed after the tight knit group. They packed silently and returned to the Headmaster's office quickly. Dumbledore gave the simple, well known instructions and they were gone.

Remus sat on the couch in the empty Potter living room, knowing that his friends would get there any moment. Mrs. Potter was with his mother and her sisters, Mr. Potter with his uncles and some of his older cousins. The rest of his cousins were in the den going through pictures for the memorial boards. He couldn't help. Maybe it was denial. Maybe the wound was just too fresh. But he couldn't go dig through boxes for the highlights of his father's life.

He barely blinked when the group crash landed in the middle of the room. Dumbledore, of course, landed gracefully. James and Sirius managed to stay upright fairly well. Fay landed, but unsteadily, and fell into Sirius who toppled over so that they landed in a heap. Lily landed, tripped over the two on the ground, and stumbled into James, landing them both on the sofa. Peter fell back on his bum and quickly stumbled to his feet with his friends.

And Melancholy?

Well, Melancholy had always been the biggest klutz possible. No one was too sure how, but she landed upside down in one of the arm chairs.

With a sort of huff, she let herself topple to the side so that she fell off of the chair hard. She stood with a small grimace to face that rest of them awkwardly.

"I believe that your mother is helping to tend to Mrs. Lupin, Miss Dyrin," Dumbledore murmured after a long, painful moment. Melancholy nodded and ducked out of the room without meeting anyone's gaze.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Neither the characters nor the song are mine.

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The days until the funeral were a blur. Melancholy seldom saw any of the Marauders. She woke each day with a list of things to attend to and went to bed much too long later with a heavy heart and double the work.

Her mother had taken preparations upon herself, and Melancholy by default, only bothering Mrs. Lupin with things that absolutely required her attention.

She didn't mind. The work gave her focus and kept her busy. It was better, in her opinion, to stay distracted. Perhaps that was just avoiding the pain though.

Perhaps that was why the funeral was so hard.

Silent tears ran down her cheeks as she followed the procession out to the burial site. Denial had faded into something akin to shock. She knew in her heart and she grieved, but her head hadn't quite accepted it yet.

As they gathered around the coffin, her mother waved her wand. Melancholy laid down her rose and steeled herself, letting the song's intro play.

Live your life to the fall  
With a lifetime of smiles  
Made us know right from wrong  
Always knowing a lie  
You made us to be tough  
But never too rough  
Rise above what you said  
Never easily lead.

And one day we'll all sing along  
'Cause this is your song  
I wrote it for you  
It won't take all day  
Just a minute or two

You were a friend  
Walk with you to the end  
And one day we'll all sing along  
'Cause this is your song

So I'll try and go on  
Loving all that we know  
Through the hardest of times  
you put on a show

You made us stand tall  
When all around us would fall  
Even when you were alone  
You believed you could fly

And one day we'll all sing along  
'Cause this is your song  
I wrote it for you  
It won't take all day  
Just a minute or two

You were a friend  
Walk with you to the end  
And one day we'll all sing along  
'Cause this is your song

And one day we'll all sing along  
'Cause this is your song  
We wrote it for you  
It'll take all our lives  
Just to help us get through  
You were a friend  
Walk with you to the end  
And one day we'll all sing along  
'Cause this is your song

The silence when the last notes died was broken only by sobs. A hand covered her mouth as the dam finally broke, but her eyes couldn't leave the pile of flowers until she turned to run.

It was raining. She hadn't even noticed the storm clouds or the icy water until she fell hard into the puddled earth. Even as the horrible cold started to fill her, she didn't move. Her form hunched, terrible sobs wracking trough her.

And then strong, warm arms found their way around her. A voice was whispering softly to her, trying to calm her, but the words seemed foreign. Everything did.

She knew the voice though. Knew it well.

And turned into the owner's embrace.

Remus.

"Hush, sweet one. It's okay. It'll all be okay." She could hear the tears in his voice, wanted to offer something back to him, but only a shudder and a whimper escaped her.

Then she was being lifted up like a child, safe in his arms and clinging like the world depended on it. Holding to him was the only things that made sense to her.

He was speaking softly to someone, but the words couldn't penetrate her mind. Perhaps it was the not knowing that made her hold tighter.

James watched his exhausted friend carry the tiny girl to the large car that his father had insisted that the Lupins use. Frankly, Mrs. Lupin was hardly in a state to drive at all, and certainly not in a car that held as many memories as hers would. He waited until the driver had securely closed the door against the cutting wind before he moved back to his parents and friends to offer comfort and to grieve for a man that he could have trusted with anything.

When they returned to the car, it was empty.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Not mine

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Remus appeared in the tree house, still cradling Melancholy's small form. He sank onto the couch and held her still tighter, finally letting the warm tears fall. "Oh, God, Melly," was all that he could choke out.

It was a place that they both knew, though it'd been years since they'd been there together, and one that they could draw comfort from. Their mothers would figure it out, he knew, and they'd leave them undisturbed.

Tears slowly grew silent next to the howl of the wind and the pelt of the rain. Though the cool of winter hadn't even frozen the ground yet and the room was heated, the chill of wet clothes was starting to set in and he could feel her beginning to shiver. He shifted so that he could look down at her and brushed a bit of hair from her face.

"There should be clothes that you can wear in the closet," he offered. "Or we can shrink them. Or just dry these if you'd be most comfortable."

She considered the options and the black dress that she was wearing. Lovely, yes, but certainly far from anything that she'd wear for comfort's sake. "Perhaps I'll look in the closet," she said finally, standing to wander over. When had this place changed so much?

"Light's on the left," he called, getting to his feet as well and moving to the kitchen like setup. "Want anything to drink?" he asked, pulling a Fire Whiskey from the minifridge and taking a generous swig. He usually didn't drink, it was there for James's or Sirius's benefits, but right now he didn't really give a damn about legal age. She didn't hear him, didn't respond, or he didn't hear her.

It had to, Remus realized, have been about ten years since he'd thought of this girl – young woman now – as Melly. Since he'd remembered her as the girl that he'd played hide and seek with in the woods, and with whom he'd built a tree house. It'd change over the years, as he had. It'd gone from a child's play house to a guys' sanctuary.

It was still theirs though.

She'd changed as well, perhaps the most of all things that he was considering. She'd moved away as his best friend and started school as someone that he didn't know. That, he corrected, was the last time that he'd thought of her as Melly. He didn't know what had happened in those three or four years, but something drastic had.

When she'd sung, he'd almost seen her visibly morph back to his childhood friend. Some coldness that had formed had melted away in the passion of the song. By the time that she'd run, he was watching the girl that he'd known.

The thoughts continued to play around in his head as he dried his own clothes, shrugged the suit jacket off, following it with his tie, and undid the top buttons of his dress shirt. God, he was exhausted quite suddenly.

Melly slipped out of the surprisingly large closet as he was taking another sip. She was wearing a T-shirt that was much too big for her – Sirius's, he was pretty sure – shorts that she must have been wearing under the dress as she'd never have found them among his, James's, or Sirius's spare things, and, at the site of the alcohol, a look of disgust. She let it slide though. He knew that there were many reasons that she could have done so.

Instead, she sat on the couch. Remus could tell by looking at her that her thoughts were somewhere else. When she came back, she didn't comment on how the place had changed, though he could also tell by the looks around that she wanted to.

"Do you remember when we were up here in that horrible storm?" Melly asked softly. Her gaze was on him, but kept moving briefly to the window to stare out and then back again. "We thought that we could stay up here forever and when we finally wanted to get down because it was so bad, it'd started to flood?" Her voice was light and whimsical with the memory, but beneath it was a graveness with the story's direction. "Your father flew out to bring us back in because we couldn't get down." She offered a small, sad smile.

"I remember." Remus's tone was even quieter than hers as he grabbed her a soda and moved to sit with her.

"You insisted that I go first."

"You were so frightened of the thunder. I could hardly leave you to wait."

Laughter bubbled at his simple explanation. He said it as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "My prince," she giggled. "I'll tell you something that I never did then," she continued, voice going a bit somber. "I was ever more afraid to leave you than I was of the storm." His smile was warm and gentle when she chanced a look up at him. They sank into silence, reminiscing of memories before times were so dark.

"What happened?" His words, more specifically his change of tone, shocked her into confusion. "What changed?"

She looked down at her hands, confirming his suspicion that something drastic had occurred. She sighed, visibly struggling with what to say. "My mother got married and… he decided to move." She wasn't saying something. He could both hear it and see it. While he was sure that it was vital to her dramatic change, he didn't want to push less she balk and freeze him out.

Again.

She gnawed at her lip, unintentionally turning it pink and plump, as she started off into space, debate visible on her face. "He…" She sighed angrily. "He didn't trust what you are." A fire blazed in her eyes at the words.

They hit him like a ton of bricks and his hands fisted. Another realization made him look up at her dully. "But-But _you_ changed…"

Tears had welled in her eyes again, hot and livid. "I wasn't given a choice." She clenched her jaw for a moment and leaned back before speaking in an empty, detached tone. She wouldn't be able to get through an explanation otherwise, and he deserved one after all this time. "He'd barely let me out once he found out, making up lies and excuses like I've never seen. And then one day he simply said to get in the car. I cried and cried when I realized that we weren't going back, but he…" Her arms drew tightly around herself. "I can't. I'm sorry, I can't."

He could see her drawing back, pulling into herself. The suddenness of it scared him more than the action itself. He didn't actually think through what he was doing until after he'd moved closer and wrapped his arms around her. She didn't relax as he'd expected, didn't try to draw comfort from him – he told himself that she neither drew away, though it helped little – but tensed. The only thing that he could think to do was to hold her still tighter, to show her that he wouldn't leave, wouldn't turn her away. Her breath escaped in a short, sharp whimper that had his brow furrowing.

"Melly?"

"I…" Head bowed, she pulled away and tugged the loose shirt over her head. She clutched it to her chest, but such a motion did nothing to cover her thin, bruised, and scarred form.

He didn't move at first. What could he possibly say to this? Some of it was so fresh; it had to be from the last few days. He reached over and lightly ran a hand along the scarred skin. Her whole form went tense. Desperate to calm her, he moved the hand up to pet her hair. While she'd frozen at his touch before, she now moved to burry her face in his chest.

"I…I…" She shook her head, unable to find words.

"Shh. It's okay, my sweet princess. It's okay. It's not your fault."

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have let it make me stop talking to you. I-I-God, I shouldn't even be bothering you with this. Certainly not now. You've no reason in the world to listen to this."

"Hush now." His voice was firm in the statement and his grip on her tightened as he felt her try to move away. "You've done nothing wrong," he insisted, rocking her ever so slightly. "You did what you had to; you can hardly be blamed for that." He sighed and kissed her temple lightly.

It was another long moment of silence and deep thought before he said, "Never again. I'm not letting him hurt you again."

"Remus, you can't possibly make a promise like that." Her smile was grateful, but she shook her head.

"I've let him hurt you long enough-"

"You didn't know!"

"It doesn't matter! You didn't deserve this and I'm not standing by!" Both of their voices had risen with emotion.

Melly pulled from his grasp to stand, flipping the shirt back on, damn near ready to start pacing. "Remus…" How could she make him understand? In her intense state, the thunder caught her off guard, startling a shriek out of her. She didn't' remember flying back into his arms, but somehow she had. His grip was tight, secure. One arm was around her waist, holding her firmly against him, the other cradled her head.

She felt him sit back on the couch, moving so that she was lying against him, and fell asleep safe for the first time in years.


End file.
